Is it important to update to v8.5.4 or can I stick with v8.5.0; bottom line:

Always update. You know that by now.

Cliffsnotes of this update?

You can now check the range FROM: asteroids, debris, gas clouds, remotes TO: ships (CTRL-SHIFT-S) or everything (again, asteroids, debris, gas clouds, remotes) (CTRL-SHIFT-L). There are no lines to show you the results (way too difficult geometry problem), only a text report.

4 bug fixes related to the mouse GUI, duplicate chat reports during dial reveals, incorrect overlaps with gas cloud 3 or with freely rotated obstacles. See below in the patch notes for more details

New feature, autorange from some tokens

As you can see from this image:

You can check out the range FROM a token – the Probe Droid token in this example

CTRL-L gives you the toggleable visual gfx, but CTRL-SHIFT-L will give you the detailed text report in case the visual isn’t easy to interpret

The first time you invoke a range report, it’ll have to produce some shapes for a few seconds, during which Vassal will become unresponsive. The delay is very reasonable and a text message will tell you what was going on right after. It will no longer need to generate those shapes after the first autorange detection use of THAT token

Detection at range 0 is included in the report (and will always report the token itself)

This is another usage of this technology. Is the asteroid being blown away by a seismic charge close enough to this Z-95? Hit CTRL-SHIFT-L while the asteroid is selected and you’ll know from the text report.

Mouse GUI, second iteration:

(this section is a repetition from the last 8.5.0 update’s article – since 8.5.4 is some sort of hotfix and this section is a major new feature, I don’t want people to miss this text. It’s important!)

I introduced a mouse GUI in the last 2 modules (the short lived 8.4.0 followed by the hotfix 8.4.1). A lot of people were confused by it (having not read the 8.4.0 blog post which hurriedly got buried by the 8.4.1 post) and would summon the mouse popup interface for a ship by mistake and not know how to turn it off. Here’s a short list of before (8.4.1) and now (8.5.0) comparison list:

Activating the GUI, Before: Hold CTRL and left-click on a ship

and now: same thing. You also get a message telling you what’s going in the chat window (message just for you, the activator of the GUI)

Clicking on a button, Before: Hold CTRL and left-click on a button

and now: Left-click on a button

After clicking any button, Before: it would dismiss the popup, even if you messed with the + and – button that adjusted the hull and shields

and now: You can also adjust the charge and the force charge, but the popup won’t dismiss itself right away; you can spam those buttons. The other buttons do dismiss the GUI.

@Mu0n:

CTRL-SHIFT-L gives you a text report of the ranges to other obstacles/ships/remotes (37 new range-specific images were generated to help with this detection)

CTRL-SHIFT-S does the same but limits itself to ships

New overlap spot checks for ships:

A ship can do ALT-C to see if it overlaps a remote (on top of the existing checks for ships, obstacles and mines)

A ship moving through a remote will trigger the overlap detection (helps for buzz swarm attachment detection)

Probe Droid Token functionality:

TO DO (next module version): a mouse GUI that pops up and lets you manage all 5 movement directions times 3 maneuver choices (straight 2, bank 2 left and right) in order to relocate the token

Buzz Droid Swarm Token functionality:

TO DO (next module version): The same overlap event should also trigger a mouse GUI that lets you select the front or back of the ship that passed through in order to attach it automatically, translated and rotated right. The 2 choices will offer a silhouette of the token and a clickable white or red dot, depending on space availability.

Spare Parts Token functionality:

TO DO (next module version): add it to the autospawner so it appears in your player window

TO DO (next module version): give it a mouse GUI shortcut which will then ask you to click on a ship so that it can be attached, translated & rotated properly, behind it. Do the same with the big Debris Cloud associated with Rigged Cargo

New Global Obstacle functionality:

Free Rotate is back for all asteroids, debris, gas clouds, remotes. I can’t keep the keyboard-driven rotations on top of this without screwing up overlap detection. Sorry!

The keyboard driven translation nudges are still here though (shift-arrow keys)

Miscellaneous:

The 1.0 and TFA damage deck dispenser buttons are pushed to the far right and the TFA deck is named as “TFA” instead of “2nd”

Squashed Bugs:

Multiple chat log reports when a dial is revealed. What was happening: the players and observers with 8.5.0 would do an “echo message” when the dial reveal command was sent to all observers. This is hopefully a thing of the past now.

Non-rotated Gas Cloud 3 (aka “Bacon Cloud”) used the horizontally flipped version for overlap detections – this is now fixed

Keyboard-rotated obstacles used the initial orientation for collision detection. This has been fixed by bringing back the free rotate (CTRL-R, or activated through the right click menu) that uses the mouse to rotate the pieces

Only player 1 could fully complete a mouse GUI-launched ship reposition without a java null crash. All non-p1 players would instead get the crash and not be able to click on the pieces on the map without first relaunching vassal. The workaround was to ask p1 to do all these repositionings. It is now fixed and everyone can do it without issue now.

@Jomblr:

Mouse interface design:

Has started a few design mockups for the mouse interface and WOW, I can’t wait to implement it. Not this module version though… I think everyone will be happy when it comes.